3 Approaches to Create Strong Ownership in Teams for Great Performance
Creating strong ownership in teams is a great step to significantly improve team performance. A leader’s or manager’s core purpose is to increase the performance of the team that they lead. Increasing performance creates the best rewards for everyone – employees, managers and the business.
Just think about it. When you want to do a great job and will be rewarded to do a great job, chances are high that you will do a great job. If there is little incentive to do a great job, and if you don’t really want to a great job, you won’t do a great job.
3 Approaches to Create Strong Ownership in Teams for Great Performance
- Define Responsibilities – the first stage to create strong ownership
- Creating Accountability – the second stage
- The right environment to incentivise ownership
I have won best team prizes at national and company level in part by creating high levels of ownership within the different teams I managed. The leaders and managers I coach who really increase team performance are those that create the right conditions for ownership to flourish within their team.
Creating ownership in teams is encouraging each employee to CHOOSE to do the best job they can to deliver what is asked of them and what is needed to reach team goals.
There are three main stages to creating strong ownership in teams and several steps within each stage.
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The first stage to creating strong ownership in teams is to clearly define each person’s responsibility
If a team member doesn’t know what you expect from them AND how their performance is going to be measured, you can’t ask them to be responsible, nor can you assess their performance objectively.
To define each team member’s responsibilities as clearly as possible, you need to give them:
- A sensible and relevant job description focusing on their areas of responsibility and the results you expect from them
- To provide them clear goals and objectives and keep these up to date and relevant. For example, you could provide weekly, monthly and quarterly goals all aligned to achieving the annual team targets.
When you have communicated to each team member their responsibility clearly AND they have understood that responsibility, I suggest you help them work out the tasks, activities, projects and milestones they need to undertake to deliver against their responsibilities. Creating a clear plan is going to improve the likelihood of reaching targets.
Finally, communicate clearly the expectations you have for HOW they should work to achieve the goals you have set them. These are your expectations for behaviours and the operating ethos of the team.
Then keep repeating these expectations and goals to each team member so they know how important they are and so they don’t get distracted or forget about their goals.
The second stage to creating strong ownership in teams is to hold team members accountable
The most important first step of holding team members accountable is to create visibility of progress towards goals and visibility of performance. When you have visibility of performance of a team member, and they are behind target, it is no surprise to anyone when you start asking questions. Without visibility, the team member might feel you are unfairly picking on them.
Visibility of progress and performance also engages peer pressure. No-one likes letting team members down.
Regularly communicate progress against the goals at a team level and an individual level. I suggest you do this for the whole team so everyone is aware of who is beating and missing progress targets. Communicate weekly or at worst monthly, depending on how quickly work can be completed.
Make the time to follow-up with each team member. For those beating goals, give them plenty of praise. Do find out what exactly they are doing to beat targets so you can pass this on the rest of the team. With those behind goals, provide them help and support so they are more likely to meet goals and expectations. Ask team members to help their colleagues too.
Finally, create benefits for hitting goals and consequences for missing goals at a team level and an individual level. You want each team member to be incentivised. Don’t just think: a bigger bonus or pay rise. Think about all the social and development rewards you can offer too. Consequences can be more corrective feedback, less development opportunities, less leeway, less autonomy, less praise, etc.
Create visibility, follow-up and create meaningful rewards and consequences to hold individuals accountable to deliver the results needed by the team.
Learn To Give Powerful Feedback
If you find giving corrective feedback difficult or stressful today, I invite you to take a look at How to Give Powerful Feedback. Put the lessons in the course into practice, and you will love giving all types of feedback, find it enjoyable and rewarding and your team members will respect and like you a lot more for it too.
Giving good useful feedback is a critical foundation to significantly improve team performance. Do that a look at the course teaching you how to give great feedback to improve performance.
The third stage to creating strong ownership in teams is to create an environment that incentives taking ownership
Ownership of work, activities and results is a choice. The individual chooses to take ownership, or they choose not to take ownership. A leader or manager can’t make an employee take ownership.
Focus on creating an environment where taking ownership is something employees WANT to do.
Here are 5 actions you should be taking to create an ownership culture in your team:
1 – Build Relationships
Work on building strong and positive relationships with each team member. Work to improve the relationships between team members too. Very few people like letting down those people they like and depend on.
2 – Promote Psychological Safety
Promote psychological safety within the team. For example, if an employee knows they are going to be publicly hauled over the coals if they miss targets, there is no way they will choose to take ownership. So don’t punish mistakes. Manage your behaviour and reactions carefully. Promote a culture where you and team members support those who are behind rather than put them down.
3 – Use the Power of Reciprocity
Employ the power of reciprocity. Work to build up favours with team members so you can ask more of them in return. This is a great way to increase overall team ownership over time.
4 – Remove Barriers
Focus on removing any barriers and resolving any problems that prevent team members from taking ownership. For example, IF they have little control or influence over key resources needed to deliver the results required, they won’t take ownership of delivering those results.
5 – Inclusive Decision Making
Include the individuals tasked with delivering results, in the decisions that will impact their ability to deliver those results. Making decisions may take longer with this approach. That extra time will be saved many times over during the implementation of those decisions because of much higher ownership.
Think about your team and situation. In addition to these 5 actions for creating an environment that encourages ownership, what else can you do to encourage your team members to take ownership of delivering the team results?
Creating ownership is creating the right environment for employees to want to and choose to take ownership.
in summary
Creating strong ownership in teams is a great way to boost team results year after year. The effort put into creating the conditions for strong team ownership is a fraction of the benefits you get as a manager, team and business from this investment.
Don’t forget to take a look at our course of teaching you how to deliver Powerful Feedback to team members designed to improve performance while strengthening relationships. Visit us at enhance.training and go to courses.
If you have any questions on “3 Approaches to Create Strong Ownership in Teams for Great Performance”, please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you.
Creating a strong sense of ownership in teams is like having an assistant manager on your team – it does half your job for you. I absolutely love it. There is a significant investment you make to create ownership in teams, yet in my experience, this investment pays back multiple times and then some.
Creating ownership is a great advert for your skills as a manager as is the significantly higher results your team will deliver. This usually results in more people to manage and promotion.
Creating ownership in teams is also an act of courage of the manager – to let go of control and to trust others to deliver. You are being assessed on their success. Not an easy mental step to take, but a VERY rewarding one when you do.
Jess Coles
